Shares of video-sharing platform Rumble (RUM) extended their gains to as much as 100% on Monday afternoon after crypto firm Tether (USDT-USD) invested $775 million.

“Tether’s investment in Rumble reflects our shared values ​​of decentralization, independence, transparency and the fundamental right to freedom of expression,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said on Friday when the strategic partnership was announced.

Rumble shares opened more than 40% higher on Monday. By afternoon trading, the stock had risen to its highest level since 2022.

Ben Werschkul of Yahoo Finance reports:

Elon Musk wants more Democrats to get involved in the emerging Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Rep. Aaron Bean is tasked with making sure that happens.

The Florida Republican is a Trump/Musk ally and co-founder of the House DOGE Caucus, which met for its first session last week to woo curious Democrats as Congress wrapped up business for the year.

“They’re still kind of scared, they’re uncomfortable, DOGE,” Bean said of the other side of the aisle in a recent interview.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma reports:

Nordstrom (JWN) is returning to its private roots after years of earnings woes and investor indifference.

The founding Nordstrom family, which owned about 33% of the shares, teamed up with small investor El Puerto de Liverpool, which owned a 10% stake, to take the company private. El Puerto is a real estate and department store conglomerate that, in addition to department stores and retailers of other formats, also operates boutiques with well-known names such as Gap, Banana Republic and Williams Sonoma, among others.

Both will acquire all outstanding shares in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $6.25 billion.

Read more here.

Technology (XLK) and communications (XLC) stocks rose modestly on Monday, while the rest of the S&P 500 sectors struggled to gain significant traction.

Chip giant Nvidia (NVDA) rose 2%, while social media platform Meta (META) also gained more than 2%.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) broke out of the green, rising 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) rose 0.5% as of 12:30 p.m. ET.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) extended its losses on Monday, falling more than 2.5% to $93,000 per token in the last 24 hours.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency has been on a downward trend since last week when Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that central bank policymakers are likely to scale back interest rate cuts next year.

Bitcoin is down more than 10% from its all-time high of over $108,000 reached last Tuesday. The token is still up more than 35% since the presidential election on November 5th.

Semiconductor stocks rose on Monday, with shares of AI chip heavyweight Nvidia (NVDA) gaining more than 1%, while Broadcom (AVGO) and Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) also edged up.

AMD (AMD) rose more than 5% after Rosenblatt Securities named the chipmaker a top pick for 2025.

Meanwhile, shares of Qualcomm (QCOM) rose after the company won a breach of contract lawsuit with Arm (ARM) on Friday.

Shares of the U.K.-based chip designer fell more than 5% during the session.

Consumer confidence fell short of expectations in December, largely due to Americans’ assessment of the economic outlook for the coming year.

The expectations index, which includes the near-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, fell 12.6 points to 81.1 in December, the largest month-on-month decline since November 2020.

Overall, the consumer confidence index reading for December was 104.7, below the 113.2 reading economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected.

“Consumers’ views of current labor market conditions have continued to improve in line with recent labor market and unemployment data, but their assessment of business conditions has weakened,” Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board, said in the release. “Compared to the previous month, consumers were significantly less optimistic in December about future business conditions and income. “In addition, pessimism about the future employment outlook has returned, following cautious optimism in October and November.”

In December, 21.3% of respondents expected fewer jobs to be available in the next six months, down from 17.9% the previous month. Meanwhile, expectations for income declines and worsening business conditions over the next six months also rose.

Markets, which have recently been in a downturn amid rising concerns about uncertainty over 2025 policies from the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve, fell after the release.

All three major indexes quickly hit their session lows before beginning to pare their losses.

Expectations for consumer confidence fell to 104.7 in December compared to estimates of 113.2.

The reading was below all 47 estimates, which ranged from 109.3 to 116.00 on 47 estimates, according to Bloomberg data.

Stocks opened mixed to start a short week of trading as investors gauge how the Federal Reserve will handle interest rate policy next year.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose slightly, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq (^IXIC) gained 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) fell about 0.4%.

Consumer discretionary stocks (XLY) rose while financials (XLF) and real estate (XLRE) lagged in early trading.

Individual risers included AI heavyweights Nvidia (NVDA) and Tesla (TSLA), which rose more than 1% and 2%, respectively.

Wall Street has had a volatile week after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell indicated the central bank will slow the pace of interest rate cuts next year.